Mission
”Strengthen the Competitiveness of the European Automotive Manufacturers through Strategic Collaborative R&D”
- Identify and describe the major relevant common R&D areas
- Act, and be recognized, as the unique reference body for Collaborative European Automotive (and Road Transport) R&D
- Have the organisational structure, strength and qualities for identifying, initiating, monitoring and supporting R&D projects
Role of EUCAR
The members of EUCAR are, of course strong competitors, between themselves and other automotive manufacturers. However, in many fields where there are common interests and non-competitive advantages, like more basic research, the manufacturers often collaborate so as to:
- Combine forces in a targeted way to devise strategies and solutions for future challenges,
- Develop and agree common frameworks that can serve as a basis for future standards (e.g. standards for new fuels),
- Gather the critical mass and necessary momentum for faster implementation of R&D results, and
- Share R&D costs.
European trans-national collaborative R&D efforts are amongst others carried out under the auspices of the European Council for Automotive Research and Development (EUCAR), focusing on pre-competitive issues of mutual interest. The automotive manufacturers founded EUCAR in 1994 as a platform and body to enable and support collaborative R&D in Europe.
EUCAR identifies future challenges and automotive R&D needs, communicates and interacts with European key stakeholders and initiates, monitors and supports R&D projects. The outcome affects innovations that are introduced to markets in the next 10 to 20 years.
EUCAR involves other stakeholders, such as suppliers, academia and research providers, vehicle users, customers, transport providers, authorities, where necessary, in order to agree on common visions and goals, identify challenges and develop feasible road maps and approaches to reach the goals.
